mjt328

The Bills really aren't in terrible shape. The depth may take a hit in free agency. But if they draft well, the Bills should still have a pretty good roster next season. They do have some big re-signing decisions on the D-Line. Leonard Floyd, AJ Epenesa, Shaq Lawson, Daquan Jones, Jordan Phillips, Poona Ford, Tim Settle and Linval Joseph are all free agents. And Greg Rousseau will likely get his 5th Year Option extended. But we don't need to bring back every single player on this list. Figure out a way to keep 3-4 of these guys, and we should be good. After that, it's pretty clear that we need to part ways with Tre White, Jordan Poyer and Deonte Harty. That will clear some space. We probably won't be re-signing Gabe Davis or Micah Hyde. I'm sure there will be some options for restructures, just like every other offseason. That will give us some space to dabble in the later stages of free agency. The big holes that will need addressing next year are Wide Receiver and Safety. This is supposed to be another historically great WR class, where we can still get a fantastic prospect late in the 1st Round and double-up on Day 2/3. That works out great for us. Our coaching staff is very good at developing defensive backs, so they can nab a couple options to replace Poyer/Hyde.

Not feeling good about this one. The Dolphins are bound to win a big game against us at some point. It's hard to dominate anyone in the NFL, much less a talented division opponent, as much as we have over them in the past 3-4 seasons. They have been a better team this season. And they have had months to prepare for the tricks that Sean McDermott pulled out back in Week 4. If they switch things up for Round 2, I'm not confident Sean McDermott will be able to adjust on the fly. Because that is something he rarely does. With our backs pushed up against the wall, we still almost lost to the Chargers and the Patriots. The Bills don't seem like a team that rides emotional highs and lows. They stay pretty steady in that department. Motivation isn't ever really the problem. Their issues are all about execution and consistency. And neither of those have been there in forever. They are sloppy, unfocused and make way too many mistakes. This offense basically has 6 days to fix a passing game that has been crap almost all season. I've really been pulling for the Wild Card contenders to lose, because I have a hard time seeing the 2023 Buffalo Bills winning this game. I guess it's still possible we sneak in the back door with 7 losses, but Seattle really cost us today.

I think it starts with Stefon Diggs. Either he is: - Injured and doing a great job of keeping it quiet - Upset Sean McDermott wasn't the one fired and now giving half-effort - Hit the age wall right around his 30th birthday Not sure the answer, but the guy has been a complete no-show for almost 2 months now. And I'm quickly losing faith he can get it back this season. He's not getting open. He's dropping tons of passes. And the only stats he's really putting up are when we force-feed him screen passes. It's absolutely pathetic. Without Diggs, we have a rookie Tight End (only going to do so much damage) and the Drop Squad. The only WR worth bringing back next season is Khalil Shakir. Everyone else can hit the road. Totally worthless. You can only blame Josh Allen so much for the terrible O-Line blocking/protection this afternoon. And multiple drives were killed by ridiculous drops. But the boneheaded turnovers have gotten out of control. All the people who defended him this week and pushed for MVP consideration were dead-wrong. The guy absolutely has a decision-making problem. The deep throw into double-coverage was stupid. And the almost-fumble on the 4th quarter scramble was horrific and easily could have cost us the game. I'm still not sold on Joe Brady either. It takes time for defenses to catch-on to your tendencies, and now opponents are keying onto James Cook. Good offensive coordinators adapt. Ken Dorsey started hot, got figured out about mid-season last year, and never figured it out afterwards. We've now had two straight awful games on offense, and I'm still not seeing a pivot from the booth. If we can't put-up 30-35+ next week (at least), you can probably kiss the playoffs goodbye.

Totally agree with this. Coaches have the ability to watch Von Miller during practice, and see how he's progressing. I don't understand the point of putting him into live game action, when they know the man can't even turn the corner. He is a liability. Let him run around tackling dummies 30-40 extra times during the week, until you know he's ready to actually make an impact. This week he got more snaps than Leonard Floyd, Shaq Lawson and Kingsley Jonathan. I just don't understand why.

No you can't. But there are definitely red flags that make certain players riskier, such as age and previous injury history. Since Von Miller's first ACL tear was 10 years prior, it's probably not fair to count that against him. But he was 33 years old at the time of his signing. If there wasn't an increased risk of injury, there was at least some risk of him suffering from normal decline at pretty much at any point. Personally, I don't blame Brandon Beane for taking a swing. After the 13 seconds game, he felt Miller was the missing piece to our Super Bowl run. And there were points in 2022 that his move looked absolutely genius. But I also understand the critics, because it was a free agent signing that absolutely came with major risks. And at the end of the day, we ended up getting burned. Miller was unable to finish the 2022 season, and it's fair to question if he will ever regain his form.

The Von Miller thing is just ugly from a bunch of different angles. Cap-wise, it makes Brandon Beane look bad for taking a huge financial risk on a player his age. Maybe that's not fair to our GM. But a mistake is a mistake, and it will likely cost us a younger and more productive player down the line (such as Leonard Floyd, AJ Epenesa or Greg Rousseau). Coaching-wise, it makes Sean McDermott look bad for continually putting him on the field. He literally cannot move side to side or turn the corner, and just runs past the Quarterback on every single play. This is something he MUST be seeing in practice. Despite this, I think fans would have a little more patience and sympathy if it wasn't for the assault charge now hanging over his head. Many if not most fans would prefer he be cut from the team based on the current evidence. But the dead-money hit on his contract would be so detrimental to the team, it's something we almost can't even consider.

The truth is, all of the top MVP candidates have flaws against them this season. That's why the favorite keeps swinging after one good/bad game. Just two weeks ago, the emerging favorite was Dak Prescott. After the Bills ran over Dallas, it suddenly switched to Brock Purdy. He throws four picks on Christmas, and now Lamar Jackson is the favorite. Much of the MVP voting is about feelings and narrative. Especially in a year where nobody is really standing out. That's why it's really going to come down to the last 2 weeks of the season. The present case against Josh Allen is pretty simple. Turnovers and team record. He started the season with that horrible 3 turnover game against the Jets, and has only reinforced the narrative by making at least one dumb pick in almost every game this season. Not to mention his primetime performances have been mostly good/solid, but nothing outstanding to get people talking. Meanwhile, the Bills are only now digging themselves out of the hole they have created in the Win/Loss standings. For Allen to win the MVP, he will really need to stand-out from the pack in Weeks 17-18. Two huge statistical games (especially in the final primetime game against the Dolphins). The Bills will need to win both, finish a top the AFC East and end up with the #2 seed.

Steelers have a tough couple games with Seattle and Baltimore, and are already at 7 losses. They are the most likely to get knocked out. I'm really not worried about them at all. All the others, it's much harder to see this working out for the Bills. Raiders, Browns, Titans and Falcons can do a lot to help us out in the coming weeks.

To win the AFC East: Win our last 3 games (Chargers, Patriots, Dolphins), and hope the Dolphins drop one to either the Cowboys or Ravens. If we drop one along the way, things are looking very iffy. We would need some help. I'm going to assume the Ravens and Chiefs win their divisions (very likely). I'm also penciling-in the Browns for one of the Wild Card slots. That leaves the Steelers, Bengals, Broncos, along with the Jaguars, Texans and Colts. Six teams in total. Someone is going to win the South. Of the other five teams, we need four of them to end up with eight losses. Steelers (7): CIN, SEA, BAL = Tough schedule. Seems pretty likely to drop-off. Broncos (7): NE, LAC, LAV = Only need to drop one more, but such an easy schedule. Bengals (6): PIT, KC, CLE = Love the Chiefs in here. Not crazy about Steelers pulling off an upset. Browns are 50/50 here. Colts (6): ATL, LAV, HOU = Falcons could win here. Raiders probably not. Someone needs to lose between Texans/Colts. Texans (6): CLE, TEN, IND = Pulling for the Browns down the stretch. Titans should have finished yesterday. See above with Colts. Jaguars (6): TB, CAR, TEN = Bucs could give them a run. The others seem easy.

Using the ESPN playoff machine: Ravens Chiefs Jaguars Bills Texans Browns Dolphins Biggest teams to root against down the stretch are the Dolphins and Broncos...

No disrespect to his memory... But it is weird how the Bills got lucky on a huge lateral play, the same day Frank Wycheck passed away. And the next day, the Titans get a huge win over the Dolphins that could give us a shot at the AFC East title.

After last night, I think it's more likely the Bills make the playoffs by winning the AFC East than sneaking in as a Wild Card. First of all, I'm very skeptical on us beating Dallas on Sunday. Might be the best/hottest team we've played all season long, and the Bills are still way too flawed. As stated multiple times, pretty much all the AFC tiebreakers are working against us. And if we drop to 7 losses, our only pathway to a Wild Card is having those other teams drop to 8 losses. Looking at upcoming schedules, I can see that happening with the Steelers, Colts and probably Bengals. It's very unlikely it happens with the Browns or Jaguars. Not looking great for the Texans or Broncos. That would knock us out. Strange enough, the ONLY team in the AFC the Bills could potentially hold a tiebreaker over is the Dolphins. If we beat them again, we hold the 2-0 head-to-head advantage. And now with that loss to the Titans, combined with upcoming matchups against the Cowboys, Ravens and Bills... the path to Miami hitting 7 losses is suddenly a realistic scenario.

That is kind-of my point... A fair and balanced article would have included both. Bottom line, Dunne learned and reported about multiple embarrassing incidents that occurred in the Bills locker room regarding Sean McDermott (some of which happened 6-7 years ago). These incidents were not previously known to the public. That part was good journalism. It was HIS choice to only include feedback on these events from sources that clearly don't like McDermott, and none of whom were willing to let their identities known. It was HIS choice not to even include the background context on these sources, making it unclear whether they are current or past members of the team. It was HIS choice to include tons of his own opinionated language in the story, painting McDermott in a very negative way. It was HIS choice to wait and release this article after the Eagles game, when the team was at it's lowest point in his entire tenure. Many people are dismissing Dunne's work as a classless hit-piece, with the goal of creating public pressure to get McDermott fired. The fact that multiple players and staff members have spoken out on McDermott's behalf, says there was another side that he chose to ignore. So if the article was taken the wrong way, it's really his own fault.

I've been playing with the ESPN playoff simulator, and it's still a very tough road ahead for the Bills. I still can't figure out a realistic way to make the playoffs, unless we win-out and finish 11-6. Miami's next two games are against the Titans and Jets. They should easily defeat both. But if they lose to Dallas and Baltimore after that, they would be looking at an 11-5 record going into the final week. So there is still a possible road to the AFC East title.... but only if the Bills finish the season undefeated. Based on tie-breakers for the Wild Card, the Bills are pretty much dead-last. Which is why (even after beating the Chiefs and a couple games going our way this week), we still sit at a terrible #11 in seeding. If we can win-out, all those teams in competition with us only need to lose 7 games. If we drop even one close game along the way, we need the others to lose 8. And that could get very tricky.

It's not Tyler Dunne's job to make up for other sports reporters supposedly not doing their jobs. This kind of mentality is how our society ends up with conservative news stations and liberal news stations, both of which only give you a part of what is true. Because both sides think their job is balancing against the other side, instead of just reporting fair and balanced themselves. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall a 1000 other fluffy news stories about Sean McDermott's giving awesome speeches or how he comes across in the locker room to the players and coaches. As you stated before, most of sports journalism is just generic and boring. To my knowledge, this was the first time anyone has heard about the 9-1-1 speech (for example). You said the goal of journalism is speaking TRUTH to power. Reading this article, do you feel like Dunne's goal was to give a TRUTHFUL and ACCURATE portrayal of how McDermott is viewed by his players and the other coaches? Several players spoke in McDermott's defense after the Chiefs game last night. Why was he unable to find anyone beforehand who would speak something positive on behalf of the coach? There is plenty of good journalism in the article. But Dunne totally wastes it, because he's starting with the premise that McDermott is a bad coach and needs to be fired. That's the message he's trying to send, and it undermines everything else he reports.

The problem with journalists today (sports or otherwise), is they have already decided beforehand what the "truth" is the public needs to know. So they have no interest in telling both sides of the story. To Tyler Dunne, the purpose of the article was not to show what really happens behind-the-scenes at One Bills Drive. Or just to let people know what Sean McDermott is like as a coach, and then let them draw their own conclusions. He has already drawn the conclusion that McDermott is a bad coach and needs to be fired, and that is the "truth" he must expose to the public. What's laughable is how every investigative reporter on the planet thinks they can publish a bunch of anonymous gossip, and then equate it with exposing the next Watergate. There is nothing remotely similar about these two stories. It's sports journalism. It's almost always going to be empty fluff and generic quotes. Again. Dunne had the opportunity to write a very interesting expose on McDermott that nobody has ever done. He could have included the 9-1-1 story, the sneaker thing, and other embarrassing stuff. Nobody has a problem with him including any of that. Where the story falls short is how he makes ZERO attempt to get feedback from coaches or players who support McDermott. They clearly exist. If his intent as a journalist was speaking the TRUTH, then he would have considered it absolutely vital to get a clear picture of how everyone in the locker room sees the coach. Not just those who don't like him. But that didn't fit his agenda, which was making it appear like nobody on the team respects him. And why didn't Dunne give at least SOME context about where his 25 anonymous quotes came from? Isn't that an important part of the truth? He didn't necessarily have to give names. But people are obviously going to give more credibility to a "respected veteran who has been in the locker room many years" versus "a position coach who was fired after one season" or a "player who was benched and later cut." The fact his information was left out, gives me a pretty good idea which side his information probably came from. Side note: I'm a former newspaper reporter myself, so I have a very strong opinion about how journalism is done nowadays. I fully understand the concept of "speaking truth to power." But it can't just be one side of the truth. It can't just be the bits and pieces of the truth that will convince readers what they need to believe. Reporters need to TRUST their readers to be given both sides of a story, and still come to the right conclusions.

And that's a problem. News articles shouldn't have that kind of agenda. If Tyler Dunne had 25 sources, he should have worked harder to get (at least some) of them to reveal their identities, instead of being anonymous. He should have specified whether these sources were current or former coaches and players, which is important context. He should have talked with people who actually like Sean McDermott, and gotten some positive quotes to contrast all the negative. There is no balance to the article. McDermott comes across like a control-freak, and that rubs a lot of people wrong. But there are lots of NFL coaches who are also control freaks and succeed BECAUSE of that character trait. Not to mention that his predecessor Rex Ryan was the complete opposite, and mostly failed because he didn't run a tight-enough ship.

Come on. Do you really believe Sean McDermott was trying to praise the hijackers of September 11? Does he really seem like the type of person that would sympathize with terrorists that killed thousands of people? He was clearly trying to make a point about being organized and working together as a team, and didn't think enough beforehand about how his comments were going to be taken. Once he realized his mistake, he apologized to the entire team, and then everyone moved on. Considering this happened 4 years ago, it clearly had zero affect on the team's performance. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to believe McDermott is not the right coach to take a team to the Super Bowl. Embarrassing locker room speeches are not one of them. Being a control freak about sneakers is not one of them. His decision to fire under performing coordinators, just like every other head coach does in the NFL, is not one of them. But yeah. It's pretty awesome this guy decided to release his article 3 days before the biggest game of the season. The team goes on a much-needed bye, needing refocus and get ready to win-out the last five games. Instead, they come out with two major off-field distractions.

With all of the information coming from anonymous sources, there is no way to determine how much is true (maybe all, maybe none). Or if this comes from coaches/players still on the team, or from people who were fired or cut. I also don't find these details to be as damning as many people are going to claim. For example, the part about Ken Dorsey.... I mean, when a team is underperforming, it's almost always a coordinator that is first to the chopping block. And Sean McDermott can't exactly fire himself. The decision to get rid of Dorsey was the right one. Sure it wasn't the best timing, considering the Denver game was blown by the defense and a special teams penalty. But the offense had been struggling for well over a month, and wasn't showing signs of turning it around. Something needed to be done to save the season. I'm also shrugging my shoulders about the stuff criticizing McDermott's personality and coaching style. None of that matters if the team is winning. Bill Belichick is a dictator in a hooded sweatshirt. When the Patriots were winning Super Bowls, the "Patriot Way' was considered the best example of how to run a franchise. Now that Tom Brady's retired and the team sucks, he's a hardass that nobody wants to play for. Meanwhile, our previous coach (Rex Ryan) was a friendly and charismatic player's coach... and he got criticized for not being structured, organized and enough like Belichick.

Grew up during the 90's Bills teams. Those years were an absolute blast. Until the last game of the year, of course. It was just recently that I realized strangely how much I love the game of football, but actually HATE the Super Bowl. Not sure I've ever really enjoyed watching it. My rooting interests were always casual. The media hype, commercials, halftime show were nauseating. My team never succeeded in winning the trophy, and most of the time it was actually someone I hated (Patriots, Cowboys, etc.) Somehow, I was able to endure the frustrations of "the Drought" without completely giving up on the sport of football... purely based on the hope that we would EVENTUALLY land ourselves a franchise Quarterback again. By Thanksgiving ever season, I was already thinking about the Draft prospects more than our remaining schedule. I believed that once we got that QB, surely we could find ourselves back into the glory days of the Jim Kelly/Thurman Thomas/Bruce Smith era. And based on the law of averages, certainly we would manage to walk away with the Lombardi before I get old and pass from this Earth. The first few years of Brandon Beane/Sean McDermott/Josh Allen seemed to go exactly as I anticipated. Make the playoffs, check. Win the division, check. Win a playoff game, check. Even the devastation of 13 seconds didn't discourage me. I felt like we were on the edge of greatness, and finally ready to take that leap. We were a powerhouse, and it was FINALLY going to be OUR TURN. Oddly enough, it was the Minnesota Vikings game last year that totally killed my hype for this franchise. Justin Jefferson's insane catch on 4th Down. The botched snap in the Endzone. Patrick Peterson intercepting the final pass in OT. Something about that game told me "this team is cursed and will never pull it off." Since that game ended, my enjoyment level has dropped to almost zero. After 30+ years watching, I almost feel like I'm watching out of obligation. Because if the Bills did somehow manage to pull it off, and I wasn't invested in the games...I would be just like all those bandwagon jumpers I'm always criticizing.

There are 6 other contenders besides us for the Wild Card slots. Only three can make it into the playoffs. So if we finish 10-7, we need at least four of those six teams to end with records 9-8 or worse. Two of them are currently 6-6. The other four are currently 7-5.

Would love you to be right. But I just don't see the math working in our favor. The Bills have two pathways to the playoffs: 1. Run the table the rest of the way, and finish 11-6. 2. Lose only one game the rest of the way, and hope they get help. Option #1 requires us to defeat three teams who are possibly in the league's Top 5. Not just "hang with them" or "play them tough"... but actually walk away with the WIN. Close, moral victories will not be enough. Option #2 seems like a more realistic pathway on the Bills side. I think they can finish 4-1. The hard part is getting the other AFC Wild Card contenders to 9-8. There are six teams we need to worry about, and at least four of them need to drop below us in the standings. From what I've read, the tie-breakers don't work in our favor. So here is what we are looking at: Cincinnati (2 more losses): IND, MIN, PIT, KC, CLE Denver (2 more losses): LAC, DET, NE, LAC, LAV Houston (3 more losses): NYJ, TEN, CLE, TEN, IND Indianapolis (3 more losses): CIN, PIT, ATL, LAV, HOU Cleveland (3 more losses): JAX, CHI, HOU, NYJ, CIN Pittsburgh (3 more losses): NE, IND, CIN, SEA, BAL

The Bills running back room is fine. As long as play-caller does a decent job of mixing it into the attack, the guys we got can be dangerous and effective. But I do agree that a pass-heavy team SHOULD be loaded at the WR position. Just as Dalton Kincaid starts emerging, it seems as though Stefon Diggs is declining. And the other guys are just solid at best. We do more... Before the last offseason, I feel like Brandon Beane's strategy has been to dedicate more resources to the Defense and hope that Josh Allen can elevate the guys on the other side of the ball. Unfortunately it was a really bad year to upgrade passing attacks. Free agency was really bare in the WR department, and all the good WR prospects were gone by our pick. Kincaid was a good consolation prize. The bright side is this upcoming draft class should be loaded at that position.

Can't agree. The only excuse for missing the playoffs would be a Josh Allen injury, or the roster around him getting completely rebooted. This year can't be viewed as anything but a miserable failure. For every positive, there is an equal negative. - Dalton Kincaid looks like a rising stud. But Stefon Diggs is nearing his decline. And we need to restart completely at WR2. - Terrel Bernard was a surprise hit. But Matt Milano will be coming off a major leg injury. - O-Line finally looks solid. But half of our D-Line has expiring contracts, and Von Miller is done. - Time to wave goodbye to major contributors like Tre White, Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.

Yes. The NFL and the Buffalo Bills should temporarily suspend Miller and then conduct their own investigation into the matter, to determine whether the allegations are true. There are reasons the woman may end up dropping the charges (money, security, fear), which have nothing to do with whether Von Miller actually committed the assault or not. Bottom line... if Miller did what he's being charged with, I don't want him playing another down for the team.